


Just A Phonecall Away

by the_crownless_queen



Series: things you said [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Phone Call
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 23:41:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13375527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_crownless_queen/pseuds/the_crownless_queen
Summary: “Next time you’re smuggling me into your suitcase, this is too long to be apart.”Separation can be hard sometimes, even when it's not meant to last.





	Just A Phonecall Away

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 'things you said with too many miles between us' prompt.

“Next time you’re smuggling me into your suitcase, this is too long to be apart,” Magnus grumbled, his voice tiny over the phone. 

“It’s just one week,” Alec replied with a quiet laugh. “We’ve done this for longer before, and survived.”

“You don’t disagree with me though,” Magnus said, his voice gravelly over the phone.

“You know I don’t,” Alec replied. He sighed, a fond smile playing on his lips.

Truth was, even though both he and Magnus loved their jobs and how meaningful they were, they both strongly disliked that it also meant they occasionally had to be separated. Like right now, when Alec had to be in Idris for a new ratification of the Accords — where Downworlders where evidently not invited, because why on Earth would anyone want to invite the people these changes would (hopefully) concern?

“Alec?”

Magnus’ voice dragged him out of his thoughts. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

“Oh, was I boring you?”

“Don’t be absurd,” Alec scoffed. “You could never bore me. I was just wishing you could have come with me.”

“ _ Suitcase _ ,” Magnus reminded him with a sing-song voice, and Alec didn’t have to see him to know that he was wiggling his eyebrows meaningfully.

It made him laugh. “My suitcase’s not that big, Magnus,” he replied with an eye-roll. “You’d never fit in there.”

“That’s what magic is for, Alexander. But I suppose you’re right… It would hardly be going in style.”

“It wouldn’t,” Alec agreed with an amused huff.

“Still,” Magnus continued, “for you, I would do it.”

Alec’s smile stretched into a wide grin. He felt so happy as though his heart was swelling in his chest. “I love you,” he replied, the words spilling out of his mouth almost on their own.

“I love you too, Alexander.”

Sometimes, Alec wondered if there would ever come a time he didn’t feel  _ something _ hearing those words — an almost painful kind of twinge in his heart, like someone had plucked at his heartstrings until his very being sang in harmony with those words.

God, but he hoped not.

“Well, even if you could -”

“ _ If _ ?” Magnus interrupted, voice rising with dramatic offense. “You don’t believe I could smuggle myself into your luggage?” He paused, the phone falling silent for a handful of seconds. “Wow, that is  _ not  _ a sentence I ever thought I’d say.”

Alec laughed. “It’s not that — I’m just pretty sure the Clave wouldn’t agree to it. If they found out, and you know they would.”

“Ugh, the Clave,” Magnus bemoaned. “Always ruining everything.”

Alec smiled, even though he could tell that the atmosphere had shifted a bit. That even though Magnus had been joking, he had also meant every word he’d said.

Now, more than ever, Alec yearned to be back with Magnus — to see him and be able to hold him.

“Well, hopefully, they’ll ruin things a bit less once I’m done here,” Alec replied.

He walked the length of his borrowed room until he found himself before the window, staring at Idris. It was indubitably beautiful — as a child, he had loved coming here — and yet, these days it paled in comparison to the simpler sights he had from Magnus’ balcony.

“You alright?” Magnus asked. “You sound…”

“I’m fine, really,” Alec reassured him quickly. “Just a bit tired from the jetlag and, you know, politics.”

That was only a partially true.

Truth was, Alec had trouble sleeping. He had been spent three nights in Idris already, and he had spent every single one of them tossing and turning in bed, alternatively finding the covers too warm or too cold, and when he finally managed to drift off, he always ended up waking up suddenly, arm reaching out for someone who wasn’t there.

It was frustrating — Alec had spent over twenty years sleeping alone, but now, after only a couple years with Magnus, he couldn’t seem to go back to that.

“I’ll be fine,” he repeated. “You don’t have to worry.”

Magnus scoffed. “I love you — of course I have to worry.”

Alec smiled, touched. “I’m fine,” he said for the third time. “Things are going well, I think, and I’ll be back by the end of the week. Any longer, and Jace would probably find a way to burn down the Institute,” he joked.

“I still don’t get why you always leave him in charge.”

“Because Izzy would probably kill me if I asked her to replace me. That, or she’d run everyone into the ground. And then she’d kill them,” he added, almost as an afterthought.

“Your sister can be quite... determined,” Magnus agreed, which Alec thought was probably the kindest, most understated way anyone had ever used to say that Isabelle would be terrifying when she wanted to.

“She can be, yes.” He paused, turning so his back rested against the window. “Anyway, enough about me — how was your day?”

“Dreadfully boring,” Magnus replied with a dramatic sigh. Alec could just picture him, back in Brooklyn, flopping down on his sofa like he bore the weight of the world on his shoulders. “At least until your call.”

Alec blushed. “I’m sure it can’t have been that bad,” he said, though he knew enough about Magnus’ job by now to know that it wasn’t necessarily untrue. Much like Alec’s own work as head of the New York Institute, there were days where everything was just very, very boring.

“But I’m glad I could help you,” he added, smiling fondly. “Even if I can’t promise to smuggle you in with my luggage next time.”

To his surprise, Magnus burst into laughter at that, the sound ringing clear over the line and warming the inside of Alec’s chest.

“That’s a shame,” Magnus finally said once his laughter had died down, though his cheer stayed clear in his voice. “It might have been fun.”

“Still a terrible idea, though,” Alec countered.

“And yet, somehow better than having to spend a week without you.”

Alec’s breath caught in his chest. “I miss you too,” he said, voice softening. “And I’ll be home soon.”

He didn’t catch what Magnus said next because someone pounded on his door loudly, their voice calling out his name. He sighed.

“Looks like I have to go,” he told Magnus. “I’ll call you back tomorrow?”

“I’ll be waiting,” Magnus swore. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Alec replied, and after a pause, he hung up.

Time to get back to work, it seemed.


End file.
